OPINION: Names in gold and infamy

Two names readily come to mind as having assured places in Nigeria’s Hall of Infamy. The two names are Buhari, though they should by no means be equally yoked. The magnitude of their infamy differs. One of the Buharis is Salisu, the disgraced and convicted pioneer speaker of the House of Representatives in this republic while the other is Muhammadu, a former general of the army and the immediate past President of the country. Though he ruled for two terms of four years each, he was equally disgraced and left office with his head bowed and Nigeria in tatters. Salisu won election to the House from his constituency in Kano state. He was a young man who had the potential of becoming a force in Nigeria’s political circle. But he was a flawed and tragic character. He aspired to and was elected the Speaker until he was outed as a conman. He was underage and so ineligible to be in the House. Also he was accused of forging a certificate- that of the University of Toronto. On instruction, security agents accosted his official motorcade and sundry convoy on the streets of Abuja, dragged him out, stripped the luxury vehicle he was riding in of the symbols of office and power, and arrested him. Salisu had his day in court and was convicted. That was sunset for him. He later got a presidential pardon. In Nigeria, the esprit de corps among politicians is probably stronger than that among the uniformed forces. We understand that Salisu is now a multi billion Naira businessman in the north.

Until May 29, the other Buhari, Muhammadu, held sway in Abuja as president. Properly put he held sway for eight years from 2015 by holding down Nigeria and Nigerians. Apparently that was not bad enough. He took Nigeria backwards by at least one generation in politics, economy, security, peaceful coexistence and unity in diversity. This Buhari was a scourge. And an affliction. He has become a byword for how a country, any country, should not be governed. To cap it up he left the country with the worst election in recent memory. The last time we checked he was in London enjoying his status as a former president and whatever else he took away from that office.

With the later Buhari Nigeria faces another danger. It is now being said in some quarters that the country’s current President, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will perform better than Buhari. Really? Buhari was such a failure as president that any ‘coconut head’ who the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] installs in the Aso Rock Villa office will do far better than him. To begin to suggest that the incumbent will outperform Buhari is to admit that we have accepted the very low governance bar as the standard for measurement of performance. Speaker Buhari was in office from 1999 – 1999. His counterpart in the Senate, Evan[s] Enwerem ‘Mature’ was also there as Senate president from 1999 -1999. He was also disgraced and removed from office for alleged corruption and forgery. In other words, corruption and forgeries have been part of our political life. The man, Tinubu, who was declared president by the INEC on the back of the hotly disputed and now unravelling February election comes with a unique baggage. He claims to be a fighter for democracy. But he is not. Almost everything about him since 1999 when he was elected governor of Lagos state to his role as a political godfather and then a national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress [APC] were antithetical to the tenets of democracy. Tinubu had a nemesis in the activist, the late Yinka Odumaki. He wrote about the man who has been installed in office as president with passion and insider knowledge. Not once while he lived and even up till this day has he been controverted.

In May 2006 in the heat of the alleged third term plot of then President Olusegun Obasanjo, Odumaki said this of the pro- democracy posturing of Tinubu: “I hope you have not released the communique [against Obasanjo’s alleged third term bid]. We need to manage this third term carefully. Obasanjo is a blind cat. If he causes problem now and they kill one Yoruba graduate in Kano and we kill 200 people selling onions in Mile 12 [Lagos], it is not equal. “I am therefore proposing that we have a win-win situation. Instead of outright third term we can have the confab recommendation of one six-year tenure starting with the incumbent having two extra years and so we the governors. We can use the two years to empower people like you and handover to one of you. I have asked Gen. Alani Akinrinade to come and I am going to meet Prof. Soyinka to discuss it”. Tinubu was a governor at the time.

You can dismiss this as the past but you must first have to assure people that a leopard changes its spots. How can you when the same Tinubu told his followers that the presidency was not served ala carte and that they have to grab, smash and snatch victory in the 2023 presidential election by hook or crook. So much for his democracy credentials. It will take doing for President Tinubu to disqualify himself from Nigeria’s Hall of Infamy. His life and political career has been dogged by alleged identity theft, alleged certificate forgeries, perjury relating to claims of attendance of St. John School, Aroloye in Lagos and Government College, Ibadan, confirmed forfeiture of hundreds of thousands of dollars to a foreign government which were linked to proceeds of drug trafficking among other sordid tales about the man some Nigerians call their president.

The story which has not been refuted was that some years ago, Tinubu’s cheerleaders orchestrated a grand reception for him by the old boys association of Government College, Ibadan ostensibly to burnish his image. Nothing was spared in the preparations. Whatever money can buy was bought. Whoever money can buy was bought. Just name the price. Expectations were high as the D-day approached until one of the old boys who had the presence and prescient of mind asked the members of the organising committee to name any of Tinubu’s classmates. Not one person could be named whether dead or alive. Game up. The grand reception, deception really, evaporated. Tinubu either denies everything that could be denied or keeps mum. But his star witness appeared to confirm the drug deal and the forfeited money at the ongoing presidential election petition tribunal in Abuja. As president, Tinubu personifies Nigeria. Is he who we are? Is he who we want to be? Is he who we want to be perceived as by the rest of the world?

READ ALSO: OPINION: Guilty until proven innocent

Another personage who has earned a place in the Hall of Infamy is Prof. Yakubu Mahmood, the chairman of INEC. He couldn’t be anything but a scammer who 419ed over 200 million people. Even his witness at the Tribunal, Lawrence Bayode said only about a third of the result of the presidential election was ready when Mahmood declared Tinubu the winner. Strangely, Bayode who is a deputy director in INEC’s ICT department and an alleged pastor in a new generation church was said to have refused to swear by the Holy Bible before his testimony. Something must be playing in his mind. It is instructive that at the pretrial, the respondents had said that they would need about 30 days and tens of witnesses to vigorously defend their positions. When the chips were down, INEC said its witnesses were having domestic issues. Laughable. For INEC, Nigeria is a joke. At the end all the respondents procured and presented only two witnesses- Bayode and the majority leader of the Senate, Opeyemi Bamidele both of whom used one and a half of the 30 days they asked for.

Festus Okoye [that name Festus], INEC’s national commissioner for information and voter education is another person with secure place in the Hall of Infamy. He was pathetic when he appeared on television recently. Before the 2023 election Okoye knew everything about innovation and technology. After the sham election he became a technophobe. He told his interviewers that any questions outside the legal profession would amount to entrapment. It is a torture to defend a brazen lie. And that torture was all over Okoye’s face that fateful night. What about Adamu Bulkachuwa who said on the floor of the Senate that he was a specialist in using his wife, Zainab who was president of the federal Court of Appeal, to be of help to his colleagues. The then president of the Senate Ahmed Lawan shut him up before he could finish his confession of how they undermined Nigeria and the judiciary. He has reportedly gone to court to stop his arrest and interrogation by the relevant agencies. If he is innocent he should surrender and complete his confession.

With the presidential election petitions tribunal running its course, the justices are faced with a place in history- Hall of Fame or Hall of Shame. We have had a peculiar judiciary in recent decades. Not anything enviable without prejudice to the few judges who still strive to walk the straight and narrow path. Gen. Oladipo Diya once said that we have judges who write two unassailable judgments in favour of the parties to a dispute. The judges bring out and deliver ruling in favour of the party with the deepest pocket.

Prof. Chidi Odinkalu once wrote that integrity and character are not qualifying criteria for appointment as a judge. He said ‘the judiciary has become a billboard for advertising some of the worst attributes of the Nigerian condition. Judging in Nigeria is now like a family heirloom that children inherit from their parents or a sexually transmitted condition that spouses inseminate one another with’. But history beckons on Justices Haruna Tsammani, Stephen Adah, Monsurat Bolaji-Yusuf, Moses Ugo and Abba Mohammed. Their task is not easy but their consciences will not be seared if they refuse to buckle under pressure or intimidation or inducement by the two main parties to the dispute- INEC, APC and Tinubu/Shettima on the one hand and Peter Obi/Labour Party and Atiku Abubakar/Peoples Democratic Party on the other hand. Let’s keep praying for them And for Nigeria.

AUTHOR: UGO ONUOHA

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Articles published in our Graffiti section are strictly the opinion of the writers and do not represent the views of Ripples Nigeria or its editorial stand.

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